Amazon’s more than 750,000 operations employees
in the U.S. are eligible for fully funded college tuition,
including cost of classes, books, and fees
Company adds three new skills training programs
for employees to help them transition into jobs as data center
technology technicians, IT engineers, and user experience
designers—Amazon employees now have access to nine education and
skills training programs, all 100% funded by the company
The Amazon-Gallup American Upskilling Study
finds that 70% of American workers would switch to a new job if
offered free skills training opportunities
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced plans to expand the
education and skills training benefits it offers to its U.S.
employees with a total investment of $1.2 billion by 2025. Through
its popular Career Choice program, the company will fund full
college tuition, as well as high school diplomas, GEDs, and English
as a Second Language (ESL) proficiency certifications for its
front-line employees—including those who have been at the company
for just three months. Amazon is also adding three new education
programs to provide employees with the opportunity to learn skills
within data center maintenance and technology, IT, and user
experience and research design.
“Amazon is now the largest job creator in the U.S., and we know
that investing in free skills training for our teams can have a
huge impact for hundreds of thousands of families across the
country. We launched Career Choice almost ten years ago to help
remove the biggest barriers to continuing education—time and
money—and we are now expanding it even further to pay full tuition
and add several new fields of study,” said Dave Clark, CEO of
Worldwide Consumer at Amazon. “This new investment builds on years
of experience supporting employees in growing their careers,
including some unique initiatives like building more than 110
on-site classrooms for our employees in Amazon fulfillment centers
across 37 states. Today, over 50,000 Amazon employees around the
world have already participated in Career Choice and we’ve seen
first-hand how it can transform their lives.”
Starting in January, Amazon front-line employees will have
access to even more education benefits through Career Choice:
- Funding for College Tuition. More than 750,000
operations employees across the U.S. will be eligible to have their
full college tuition paid for at hundreds of education partners
across the country. In addition to funding associate and bachelor’s
degrees, Amazon’s Career Choice will also fund high school
completion, GEDs, and ESL proficiency certifications.
- Pre-Paid Fees. Amazon will pay employees’ tuition and
fees in advance rather than offering reimbursement after coursework
completion, ensuring employees don’t need existing funds to start
accessing the education options they want.
- Limitless Learning. Amazon front-line employees will
have access to annual funds for education as long as they remain at
the company, with no limit to the number of years they can
benefit.
- Fast Starts. All 750,000 U.S. hourly employees are
eligible to participate in Career Choice 90 days after starting at
Amazon. This makes all 400,000 employees who joined the company
since the start of the pandemic eligible to access Amazon-funded
education opportunities.
“I worked in a warehouse
setting for years but knew I wanted to help people and had been
curious about healthcare. In just nine months, I became a certified
clinical medical assistant while working at Amazon in Tracy,
California, thanks to Career Choice,” said former Amazon operations employee and
Career Choice graduate Patricia Soto. “A career in healthcare would have been
difficult to obtain without tuition support from Amazon and an
internship opportunity to apply my new skills.”
Additional New Skills Training Programs
In addition to the expanded
Career Choice benefits, Amazon is also launching three new
upskilling programs—all tuition-free for participants—to provide
even more career-advancement opportunities for its
employees:
- AWS Grow Our Own Talent offers on-the-job training and
job placement opportunities to Amazon employees and entry-level
candidates with nontraditional backgrounds. The training will help
them pursue roles to innovate within Amazon Web Services (AWS) data
centers and safely deliver high-quality cloud computing services to
customers. Participating employees are hired into roles like data
center technicians and operations technicians, and complete
in-person, on-the-job training for up to six months.
- Surge2IT is designed to help entry-level IT employees
across Amazon’s operations network pursue careers in higher-paying
technical roles through self-paced learning resources. The course
helps employees develop the skills necessary to advance their
career in the information technology field, such as supporting the
Amazon Robotics picking and stowing technology. Participants who
complete the course and move up at Amazon can make an additional
$10,000 a year.
- The User Experience Design and Research Apprenticeship
program combines instructor-led training and real-world experience
in a one-year program that offers employees the opportunity to
learn and develop skills in research and design on teams across
Amazon, including Prime Video, Alexa, AWS, and Amazon Fashion.
Graduates are ready for jobs that help improve the experience of
Amazon customers, from making payments easier on Amazon sites to
designing features that make devices more accessible.
“Today, there are not enough workers to fill every open job in
the United States, which means that businesses are struggling to
hire—especially for roles that require specific or technical skill
sets,” said U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation Senior Vice
President Cheryl Oldham. “When large employers like Amazon commit
to investing in their people through upskilling programs,
especially in technical fields, it helps to ensure that the
business community has access to a workforce pipeline that meets
their needs today and in the future. At the Chamber Foundation, we
work with employers across the country to pursue solutions that
ensure American workers have the right skills to best support and
grow our economy and we applaud Amazon for the investment they’re
making in the workforce.”
Upskilling 2025
Two years ago, Amazon announced Upskilling 2025, a $700 million
commitment to train 100,000 U.S. employees by 2025 to help them
transition into in-demand, higher-paying jobs. Since the launch of
Upskilling 2025 in 2019, more than 70,000 employees have
participated in one of Amazon’s nine upskilling programs. With
today’s additional investment and expanded education benefits for
employees, the company is more than tripling its original pledge –
with plans to invest $1.2 billion in these programs and provide
free skills training to 300,000 employees over the next four years,
the equivalent of more than 30% of the company’s current workforce
in the U.S.
Amazon has seen a surge in applications to participate in
education programs since the start of the pandemic, reflecting
increased interest from employees to fortify their skillsets.
Amazon Technical Academy, an upskilling program that helps Amazon
employees from all backgrounds become software engineers in nine
months, received thousands of applications, with interest
increasing 460% over the past 18 months. To accommodate a surge in
demand, Amazon scaled all of its upskilling programs, adapting to
work-from-home schedules, and welcoming more participants by
pivoting from in-person to virtual training. In addition to the new
and expanded programs outlined above, Amazon employees have free
access to the following skills training programs:
- Amazon Technical Academy trains employees from across
the company to become Amazon software engineers. The
nine-month-long internal training program does not require a
computer science background or a degree. Amazon Technical Academy
has placed 98% of its graduates into software development engineer
roles within Amazon, with their salary and compensation packages
increasing an average of 93% as a result. This year more than 40%
of Amazon Technical Academy graduates came from Amazon’s operations
network.
- The Amazon Technical Apprenticeship program creates
paths to technical jobs, primarily for veterans and military
spouses looking to transition into technical professions. Amazon
currently employs over 40,000 U.S. veterans and military spouses
across multiple businesses and recently announced plans to hire
100,000 U.S. veterans and military spouses by 2024.
- AWS Training and Certifications offers Amazon employees
access to more than 500 free digital courses to build cloud
computing knowledge. As part of this program, AWS Tech U offers an
accelerated 48-week career-development program that blends
project-based learning and on-the-job training to help early-career
employees in technical fields advance their skills.
- Machine Learning University is a state-of-the-art
training program curated and delivered by Amazon employees. It
helps employees with a background in technology and coding gain
graduate-level skills in machine learning and AI to solve customer
problems.
- Mechatronics and Robotics Apprenticeship program
participants learn the skills and technical knowledge needed to
pursue a technical maintenance role supporting Amazon’s robotics
technology. Hundreds of Amazon apprentices have earned nearly 3,000
certifications to date. Upon completion of their apprenticeship,
participants could make an additional $16,000 on average each year
in their new roles at Amazon.
To explore Amazon’s full roster of education and skills training
programs, visit: http://aboutamazon.com/upskilling2025.
The American Upskilling Study
Amazon’s new investment in free access to education programs for
employees comes as the first-ever Amazon-Gallup American Upskilling
Study shows how access to skills training can help companies
recruit more workers and help workers build skills for rewarding
careers. The analysis found that U.S. workers who completed
upskilling programs over the past year have seen an average salary
increase of 8.6%—the equivalent of an additional $8,000 in their
annual earnings.
The expectation of this salary boost, along with new skills that
will help employees move into more technical and resilient
industries, have made access to upskilling opportunities one of the
most sought-after employee benefits by American workers right now.
Currently, 70% of workers interested in upskilling say they would
switch to a new job if offered free skills training. For young
adults entering the labor market, employer-funded upskilling is
more important than paid vacation time.
To access the full findings of the new Amazon-Gallup study,
click here.
About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather
than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to
operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Amazon strives to
be Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company, Earth’s Best Employer,
and Earth’s Safest Place to Work. Customer reviews, 1-Click
shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by
Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Career Choice, Fire
tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, Alexa, Just Walk Out technology,
Amazon Studios, and The Climate Pledge are some of the things
pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit amazon.com/about
and follow @AmazonNews.
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